Does an Australian migration agent have to give an itemised invoice?

Australian migration agents work under the Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021. The invoicing and receipting duty is stated once, in section 49, inside Division 3 of the Code — the Division that governs fees and disbursements. It has two limbs, and they operate in sequence: an itemised invoice before the client is charged, and a receipt after the client pays.

1. What section 49 requires

The provision, reproduced in full from the current compilation of the Code:

A responsible migration agent in relation to a service agreement: (a) must not charge a client, and must ensure that a client is not charged: (i) a fee for work or services performed under the agreement; or (ii) an amount for a disbursement in relation to work or services performed under the agreement; unless the client is given an itemised invoice containing details of the work or services to which the fee or disbursement relates; and

(b) must ensure that, after the client pays such a fee or amount, the client is given a receipt that identifies: (i) the work or services to which the payment relates; and (ii) the invoice, if any, to which the payment relates.

Note: Under section 313 of the Act, a registered migration agent is not entitled to be paid a fee or other reward for giving immigration assistance unless the agent gives the assisted person a statement of services that sets out particulars of each service performed and the charge made in respect of each service.

2. The first limb: no charge without an itemised invoice

The prohibition bites on charging, not on invoicing as an end in itself, and it is drafted in two parts. The agent “must not charge a client, and must ensure that a client is not charged”. The second half of that sentence matters: the duty is not discharged by the agent personally refraining from issuing a bill, because the agent must also ensure the client is not charged. A charge raised by anyone else in the agent's business falls inside that assurance duty.

Two categories of amount are covered — “a fee for work or services performed under the agreement” and “an amount for a disbursement in relation to work or services performed under the agreement”. Both are subject to the same condition, which is expressed negatively: the amount must not be charged “unless the client is given an itemised invoice containing details of the work or services to which the fee or disbursement relates”.

Two consequences follow from that wording. First, the invoice comes before the charge: the giving of the invoice is what the section treats as making the charge permissible, so an invoice produced later — at the end of a matter, or only when the client asks — does not fit the sequence the provision describes. Second, the invoice must be itemised and must connect each amount to the work or services it relates to. The section does not prescribe a template, a layout, or a particular degree of granularity; what it requires is the content — the details of the work or services to which the fee or disbursement relates.

Whether a fee or a disbursement may be charged at all is governed elsewhere in the same Division: section 46 controls fees under a service agreement and section 47 controls disbursements. Section 49 adds the invoicing condition that sits in front of any charge for work or services, and in front of any amount for a disbursement, performed under the agreement.

3. The second limb: a receipt after payment

Payment triggers the second limb. Once the client pays a fee or a disbursement amount, the agent “must ensure that, after the client pays such a fee or amount, the client is given a receipt that identifies” two things:

• “the work or services to which the payment relates”; and
• “the invoice, if any, to which the payment relates”.

The second item is expressed conditionally — the receipt identifies the invoice where there is one. The first is not: the receipt must identify the work or services to which the payment relates. The trigger is the payment itself; the provision does not condition the receipt on the client requesting one.

4. Who owes the duty, and where it reaches

The opening words of the section identify the duty holder: the responsible migration agent in relation to a service agreement. The obligation is framed in terms of ensuring, so a practice cannot treat the invoice and the receipt as clerical extras owned by whoever issues the paperwork — the responsible agent carries the duty.

Section 49 also reaches beyond work performed under a service agreement. For an initial consultation conducted other than under a service agreement, section 43(3)(b) provides that “section 49 (invoices and receipts) applies in relation to” the immigration assistance given, or other work or services performed, as part of that consultation, “as if the immigration assistance were given, or the other work or services were performed, under a service agreement”. A fee for an initial consultation conducted outside an agreement is therefore charged on the same invoicing condition, and the receipt duty follows the same payment.

5. The Note: section 313 of the Act

Section 49 closes with a Note pointing to a separate provision of the Act:

“Under section 313 of the Act, a registered migration agent is not entitled to be paid a fee or other reward for giving immigration assistance unless the agent gives the assisted person a statement of services that sets out particulars of each service performed and the charge made in respect of each service.”

The Note does not restate section 49. It records where the Act itself conditions entitlement to be paid, and the document the Act speaks about there is a statement of services — not the itemised invoice. The two documents perform different functions: the invoice is the Code's precondition on charging under the section, while the statement of services is the Act's precondition on the agent being entitled to be paid at all. A file that holds an itemised invoice and a receipt is not thereby a file that holds a statement of services.

6. The invoices and receipts stay on the client file

Section 56(2)(f) requires the client file to include “copies of all invoices and receipts given by the agent relating to the client”. The file must then be “kept for a period of 7 years after the last action on the file for the relevant client” under section 56(5). Both limbs of section 49 therefore produce documents with a retention life of their own.

What this requires in practice

• An invoice issued before any charge is raised, itemising the work or services each fee and each disbursement relates to.
• A receipt issued on payment, identifying the work or services paid for and the invoice it relates to.
• Controls that cover everyone in the business who can raise a bill or take a payment, because the duty is to ensure the client is not charged without the invoice.
• Copies of the invoices and receipts on the client file, where section 56(2)(f) puts them.
• Separate attention to the statement of services the Act requires, which the section 49 Note records and which the invoice and receipt do not replace.

Practice takeaway. Section 49 makes the itemised invoice a precondition of charging and the receipt a consequence of payment. The invoice must identify the work or services behind each amount; the receipt must identify both the work or services and the invoice. The order matters, and neither document is generated by the client asking for it.